Praised by The New York Times for their «exquisite and fresh performances», the Quiroga Quartet has established itself as one of the most dynamic and distinctive string quartets of its generation, internationally acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its unique personality,  as well as for its bold and original approach to its string quartet repertoire.

Winners of the 2018 National Music Award, the Ojo Crítico Award from RNE, and prizewinners at the leading international string quartet competitions (Bordeaux, Paolo Borciani, Geneva, Beijing, Fnapec-Paris, Palau Barcelona), in 2013 the Quiroga Quartet became the first ensemble in residence at the Royal Palace of Madrid, entrusted with the decorated Stradivarius quartet from the Palatine Collection.

The Quartet is currently ensemble in residence at the Cerralbo Museum in Madrid and regularly performs in the most prestigious venues on the international circuit, including the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus, and Philharmonie in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London, The Frick Collection and Lincoln Center in New York, DaCamera in Los Angeles; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Les Invalides in Paris, Martinů Hall in Prague, Nybrokajen in Stockholm, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Stadtcasino Basel, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and festivals such as Heidelberger Frühling and the Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale.

Among their regular stage partners are musicians such as Martha Argerich, Veronika Hagen, Jörg Widmann, Javier Perianes, Valentin Erben, Richard Lester, David Kadouch, Jonathan Brown, Cappella Amsterdam, and the Doric, Meta4, Ardeo, and Galatea.

Passionate advocate of contemporary repertoire, regularly collaborating with today's composers, presenting and recording new creations to establish a constant dialogue between tradition and new music. They have premiered works by prominent composers such as Peter Eötvös, Cristóbal Halffter, Jose María Sánchez-Verdú, Antón García-Abril, Jesús Villa-Rojo, Marisa Manchado, Narine Khachatryan, and Cecilia Díaz, and have performed the complete works for quartet by György Kurtág, in upcoming seasons, they will premiere works by Jonathan Dove, Jörg Widmann, and José Luis Turina.

Since 2012, the Quiroga Quartet has embarked on an ambitious project to build a distinctive and inspired discographic catalogue with the independent Dutch label Cobra Records. In autumn 2021, they released their latest album, “Und Es Ward Licht. Haydn & Mozart: The Birth of a New Era in C Major”, recorded together with the renowned violist Veronika Hagen and dedicated to the emergence and flourishing of chamber music and the string quartet as genres born of the Enlightenment. Their previous CD, “Heritage”, offers an eloquent anthology of the string quartet musical scene in Madrid during the age of Goya. Released in 2019, this «essential album» (Scherzo) is performed on gut strings and includes two world premiere recordings of works by Boccherini and Brunetti. Their debut album, pairing Haydn and Webern with Sollima, won the 2012 CD of the Year Award from the Union of Independent Producers (UFI). Other critically acclaimed recordings for Cobra include albums devoted to early works by Schönberg, Webern, and Alban Berg, Brahms’s Op. 51 quartets, and works by Bartók, Ginastera, and Halffter. In 2016, they released a recording with Javier Perianes for Harmonia Mundi featuring rare piano quintet works by Granados and Turina.

Founded in 2003, the Quiroga Quartet takes its name from the Galician violinist Manuel Quiroga, one of the most outstanding string performers in Spanish musical history. They studied with Rainer Schmidt at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, with Walter Levin at the Musikakademie Basel, and with Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy. Other important artistic influences include Johannes Meissl, György Kurtág, András Keller, Eberhard Feltz, and Ferenc Rados. Deeply committed to chamber music education, they teach at the Zaragoza Conservatory of Music, the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, Musikene, and the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, and are regularly invited to give masterclasses at universities and conservatories throughout Europe, the United States, and Latin America. 

The Quiroga Quartet and Cibrán Sierra wish to express their gratitude to the heirs of Paola Modiano for the generous loan of the Nicola Amati “Arnold Rosé” violin (Cremona, 1682).

His recent successes, including performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Musikverein in Vienna, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Hofburg (recorded for Alpha Classics), and the German Requiem by Brahms at the Bozar in Brussels and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, attest to the outstanding artistic moment of José Antonio López. His career also includes appearances at venues such as the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, the Warsaw Philharmonic, Halle aux Grains, and Theater an der Wien, as well as the main concert halls in Spain. In these venues, he has performed a repertoire ranging from Bach to Brahms, as well as works by Mahler and Britten, Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem, and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, the latter recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon label. José Antonio López is also highly active in the performance of contemporary repertoire.

In the current season, among numerous engagements, he will make his debut at the Barbican in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Josep Pons, he will return to the Musikverein in Vienna to perform the St John Passion with the Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck; and he will sing Bach’s Mass in B minor with La Cetra and Andrea Marcon on tour in Switzerland and Austria. His operatic activity includes the interpretation of the title role in El Público by Mauricio Sotelo at the Teatro Real, conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado, recent debuts as Germont in La Traviata (Córdoba, Oviedo, Pamplona and Gijón), Jokanaan (Salome at the Mérida Festival), Amonasro in Aida and Iago in Otello, as well as the title role in Der fliegende Holländer in Valencia. He recently made his debut at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. José Antonio López has also performed, among others, several operas by Handel (Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo, Radamisto and, in 2017, Rodelinda at the Teatro Real in a production by Claus Guth), Figaro, Don Giovanni and Escamillo in Carmen. In 2018 he made his debut as Ford in Falstaff at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.

José Antonio López has worked with leading conductors such as David Afkham, Gerd Albrecht, Andrey Boreyko, Ivor Bolton, Iván Fischer, Leopold Hager, Martin Haselböck, Pablo Heras-Casado, Christopher Hogwood, Lorin Maazel, Andrea Marcon, Sir Neville Marriner, Salvador Mas, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Maurizio Pollini, Josep Pons, Christophe Rousset, Masaaki Suzuki, Yaron Traub and Antoni Wit, among others.